Technical Field
The present invention relates to a laser irradiation device including a laser diode array in a light source.
Related Art
A carbon dioxide laser, a solid-state laser, an excimer laser, or the like is used in laser annealing of a semiconductor substrate. The light intensity distribution (beam profile) of a laser beam emitted from such a laser oscillator has generally a Gaussian shape. A laser beam having a beam profile uniformed by a homogenizer is caused to be incident on a semiconductor substrate, thereby allowing high-quality annealing to be performed.
In recent years, there has been progress in increasing the power of a laser diode array. A high-power laser diode array is used as a light source by which laser welding, laser cutting, solid-state laser excitation, and the like are performed.